The Chaebol Life Begins (4)
My firm answer brought a look of considerable surprise back to Oh Il-mu's face. Understandable. Even as the top passer of the bar exam, to a man who had spent decades as a judge before continuing as a lawyer, I must have seemed like nothing more than a greenhorn.
"Of course, opening your own practice is fine, but since you're just taking your first steps into the legal world, wouldn't it be wiser to gain more experience and build your credentials before going independent? You've passed the bar with the highest score, so your theoretical knowledge is undoubtedly solid, but legal work has many aspects that can only be learned through real practice."
Experience? Credentials? Hardly. Back when I lived as Kang Min-chan before the accident, I had already been through enough real-world grind as a prosecutor and then as a cleanup lawyer. On top of that, simply knowing the outlines of cases lets me see future verdicts. What more could I possibly learn under someone else?
Of course, neither Chairman Kwon Byung-do nor Advisor Oh Il-mu in this room knew anything about my past or my ability to glimpse those verdicts. In moments like this, I had to hold my ground without appearing arrogant. I needed to give them the answer they wanted to hear from a spirited young man starting a new life and the third son who was the spitting image of Chairman Kwon Byung-do.
Before choosing the most ideal response, I recalled the history of the QS Group, including anecdotes about Chairman Kwon Byung-do and Advisor Oh Il-mu. Whenever I had spare time, I gathered publicly available information about the QS Group. What once felt like stories from an alien world now fascinated me, because this company would soon be mine.
The QS Group had grown alongside Korea's industrial development. The Kwon family had been large landowners in the Gyeongnam region for generations, through the Joseon Dynasty and the Japanese colonial period. After liberation, the Korean War broke out shortly afterward. Fortunately, most of the family's land lay south of the Nakdong River, so it suffered relatively little war damage. When the armistice was signed, land prices skyrocketed.
Kwon Seong-uk, the eldest son of the Kwon family, sensed that land would no longer be the primary source of great wealth in the coming era. He sold the land and built factories. His first venture was a food processing plant. In today's terms it would have been scandalous, but he received free raw materials like corn flour as aid from the United States, processed them into noodles and snacks, and sold them. At a time when nearly all processed foods depended on imports, far from being criticized for misappropriating aid, Kwon Seong-uk received national commendation for achieving domestic production in the food industry. That marked the beginning of the QS Group.
Kwon Seong-uk established a company called Kwon Seong Industries, moving beyond individual factories, and produced light-industry goods such as shoes, clothing, and wigs. Aligned with the nation's development strategy at the time, these products flew overseas. Next, Kwon Seong-uk turned his attention to home appliances like televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines. With his exceptional foresight, he imported technology from abroad earlier than others and built factories. For a while, Kwon Seong Industries nearly monopolized the domestic appliance market. Around that period, the company restructured its growing affiliates into a formal group system, adopting the name QS Group that has remained ever since.
That was the first generation of the group. Kwon Seong-uk had three sons: Kwon Gap-do, Kwon Eul-do, and Kwon Byung-do. While deliberating which of them to appoint as the group's crown prince, Kwon Seong-uk entrusted each with different affiliates. The two elder brothers focused on how to sell existing products better, whereas the youngest, Kwon Byung-do, concentrated on finding new businesses. Among the affiliates, telecommunications and food went to the two elder brothers, while electronics went to Kwon Byung-do. While his brothers obsessed over new model launches and marketing strategies, Kwon Byung-do alone invested in the semiconductor industry, believing it would propel the group onto the world stage. He imported cutting-edge semiconductor technology that most ordinary people at the time barely understood and poured resources into research. His vision shone brilliantly during the global semiconductor boom that arrived with the spread of personal computers, instantly transforming the QS Group into a global enterprise.
Chairman Kwon Seong-uk could not help but see that Kwon Byung-do's talent for looking ahead was exactly like his own. In the end, core businesses including QS Electronics, along with food and telecommunications, passed to Kwon Byung-do along with the title of Chairman of the QS Group. After Chairman Kwon Seong-uk passed away, several fraternal conflicts erupted. In an era when primogeniture was taken for granted, handing the group to the third son instead of the eldest or second must have been deeply painful for the brothers Gap-do and Eul-do. Yet Chairman Kwon Byung-do crushed them thoroughly, reducing both brothers to a near-legally dead state. Advisor Oh Il-mu, now sitting before me, had played a major role in that suppression.
Since then, Chairman Kwon Byung-do's nephews—Ho-gyun's cousins—had received a few smaller affiliates and struck out on their own, but none of them could even be considered true conglomerates.
Reminding myself how remarkable the two men seated with me in the QS Group chairman's office truly were, I continued with an answer that could display my spirit while still sounding agreeable.
"I wasn't even born yet when Father started the semiconductor business at about my age. Thanks to that, the QS Group has grown into a global company, hasn't it? Now that I've come to my senses, I want to build something with my own hands."
Chairman Kwon Byung-do burst into hearty laughter. "Ho-gyun, how old are you this year?"
"Twenty-nine, now that the new year has passed."
"Right. A man has reached the age to start a business."
"I'm sorry for disappointing you all this time, Father. From now on, things will really be different."
Since my bar exam results had already proven that this was no empty promise, there was no need for lengthy explanations. Even so, Advisor Oh Il-mu could not hide his worried expression, as if he had left a child by the roadside.
"Young Master, if you truly dislike becoming a judge or prosecutor, why not at least work in the QS Group legal team first? Many of the juniors I personally trained and raised are there. Spending time with them would be greatly beneficial to you as well."
Hmm. If I insisted too strongly on running my own firm here, I risked coming across as arrogant. That impression must never reach Chairman Kwon Byung-do, even if it might be acceptable with Advisor Oh Il-mu. Should I say I would consider it? Or, since six months of practical training or legal work experience was required to obtain my license anyway, should I reluctantly accept and then leave after exactly six months to open my practice?
Just as I was struggling to find a satisfactory answer, Chairman Kwon Byung-do cut into our conversation.
"This is exactly why I called the two of you together, Advisor Oh."
"Yes, Chairman."
"Instead of assigning him to the legal team, how about you personally take Ho-gyun under your wing and teach him? I'll make sure the support is solid, as payment for my son's tuition."
The moment I heard those words, my eyes lit up. Chairman Kwon Byung-do had just granted permission for me to open my own law firm while simultaneously promising full backing at the QS Group chairman level and attaching Advisor Oh Il-mu to me. Working with Oh Il-mu would naturally allow me to skip the six-month practical training requirement. Given the significant age gap between Ho-gyun and his older brothers—sixteen and fifteen years respectively—those six months were far from negligible for someone who needed to produce results as quickly as possible.
The profile of Advisor Oh Il-mu that had existed only vaguely in my mind now took clearer shape.
- The general who led the charge in suppressing the Kwon brothers' conflict.
- A strategist deeply involved in internal information after leading the QS Group legal team for decades.
- An attorney whose connections in both the legal world and the business community, including the QS Group, made him a top recruitment target for countless law firms.
- Yet he remained with the QS Group as an advisor.
And most importantly:
- A man trusted enough by Chairman Kwon Byung-do to be entrusted with his son.
If this Advisor Oh Il-mu worked alongside me, and if I could eventually make him my own man, then I—who had been stuck on the periphery—would board an express train straight into the QS Group's succession structure.
Advisor Oh Il-mu looked at Chairman Kwon Byung-do and asked, "Are you saying I should run a law firm together with the Young Master?"
"When you put it that way, it sounds as if I'm driving you out of your own company. Haha. Just leave all the troublesome business matters and miscellaneous tasks to the boy and watch over him as his senior lawyer. It would be even better if you occasionally acted as his mentor. He may have passed the exam with top marks, but he has no practical experience whatsoever."
This time, Advisor Oh Il-mu's eyes turned to me. "What do you think, Young Master?"
I could not afford to miss this opportunity.
"You're my senior by many years. Please speak comfortably. Instead of 'Young Master,' calling me Attorney Kwon or just Kwon Attorney would make me feel more at ease."
Chairman Kwon Byung-do's laughter once again filled the office. "Haha, look at this kid. He hasn't even received his license yet and he's already talking about being called Attorney Kwon? Well, he did pass with top marks, didn't he?"
Advisor Oh Il-mu followed the chairman's laughter and asked again, "So, what do you think, Attorney Kwon?"
"It would be a tremendous honor to work and learn alongside you, Advisor Oh."
"Since both the Young Master—no, Attorney Kwon—and the Chairman wish it, I will proceed with opening the law firm together with the Young Master as discussed."
Chairman Kwon Byung-do, still grinning from ear to ear, patted Advisor Oh Il-mu's shoulder. "Good, good. Thank you as always, Advisor Oh. At the very least, you won't have to worry about running out of work or money."